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By Joe Buscaglia

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Bills' Manuel deemed 'poor starter' by grading website

by Joe Buscaglia,posted May 15 2014 10:52AM

During the 2013 regular season, Buffalo Bills starting quarterback EJ Manuel had a first year that was full of injuries, inconsistencies and glimpses of promise for the future. Basically, he was a rookie that played like one.

Appearing in a total of 10 games last season, Manuel did not provide the answer to the question that every Bills fan wants: is he going to be the franchise quarterback the Bills think he can be? A multitude of pros and cons could be justified after his performance for Buffalo in 2013, but Manuel still lacks a true answer to that very, very important question.

In the minds of one highly respected website, they are not all that impressed with Manuel after one season. Going through all their depth charts and adding in the rookies to each team, Pro Football Focus did the same with the Bills. Each player is qualified with a coordinating color that signifies any of the following: "elite," "high quality," "good starter," "average starter," "below average starter," "poor starter," "not enough information," or "rookie."

The important thing to point out is that these are not projections for the upcoming season and beyond. Pro Football Focus goes through every game in the NFL and grades every player on every team, so their findings are based purely on a player's history in the league.

The analysis of the Bills' starting lineup, as currently constructed, yielded a large amount of "average starter" types. In their opinion, Buffalo has one "elite" player in Kyle Williams, and two "high quality" players in C.J. Spiller and Marcell Dareus.